Chrissie Swan

I mean, look, some would say...

I was a mistake.

But by the time that I came to be, we'd moved to Melbourne.

I'm the only one in the family that was born in Melbourne and I've lived here all my life.

And everybody else is from Queensland.

And so it was almost this...

folkloric, these stories that I was told that happened long before I was around about this auntie and that cousin.

I just wanted to know how they smelt and what that person was like.

I don't think my curiosity was matched.

My gran would put up with it, but

I don't think anyone was as interested as I was, but I had such a small family.

There was just us in Melbourne, a satellite, and then I only had four cousins.

My mum was an only child, but my gran was from one of those big,

Catholic families where all the girls' names started with M and all the boys' names started with J. And my dad's mum also came from a massive family.

But again, by the time I came along, I only had one grandparent and it was Gran.

So I wanted to know what her husband, my mum's dad, was like and what his sister was like.

And I would look at photos.

So

While my interest is not in the tree, it's in the people in the branches, if that makes sense.

If you've ever looked at me and thought she comes from unusual stock, you would be absolutely correct.